Reflections of Module 1 Readings
When signing up for this class, I honestly had no idea what media literacy was and didn’t have a single clue what this class would be about. After completing these readings, I learned a ton of new information and found the majority of the readings fairly interesting. So far from what I learned, it has made me more aware how kids receive messages from what they see or hear from the media, if there is a message being received at all.
Today, I was with family and there was a 10 year old boy there who was watching the basketball game with his dad. When there were some commercials that were played and he pointed things out and asked some questions on what those things meant. Noticing this, it reminded me of Jesse Gainer’s article Social Critique and Pleasure: Critical Media Literacy with Popular Culture Texts. Critical literacy is described as “the ability no only to read and write, but also to asses texts in order to understand the relationships between power and domination that underlie and inform those texts” (2007). In the article, Gainer compares their daughter with her cousin when it comes to music. Gainer’s daughter asks questions what the lyrics actually mean, whereas the cousin likes the song because of the beat. Towards the end of the article, the daughter was talking about the song “Sk8ter Boi” by Avril Lavigne. Honestly, this made me really excited because I used to love her when I was ten. But the daughter, Clara, noticed the gender roles I guess you would say. She talked about how the irony of how in the song it mentioned how the girl was at home and taking care of a baby and it was the boy that was a rock star when she is one herself. So Clara started switching the roles throughout the song. When I was younger and even now, I never caught onto that.
So, what is media literacy? According to Rick Shepherd, media literacy is an “informed, critical understand of media.” Reading through that first article, there were a few different definitions but this one was short and understandable. Now, Chris Worsnop says there are three different terms that are used which are used interchangeably. These terms include: media education, media study, and media literacy. He says that media education is everything that happens in a classroom that is media oriented. Media study is when “schools of teacher organize specific courses or units to study the media.” Lastly, to him media literacy is the “expected outcome from work in either media education or media study. So as you can see that these terms are similar and I can see how these terms are interchangeable. The last thing that I thought stood out in this reading was the three stages that was mentioned by Elizabeth Thoman. The first stage is “becoming aware aware of the importance of managing ones media ‘diet’.” Next is to learn the specific skills to critical viewing. One of these skills is to “analyze and question what is in the fram, how it is constructed and what may have been left out.” So pretty much getting into the details. The third stage is to “go behind the frame to explore deeper issues.” This I think would be go farther into detail and know the background and how everything was put together.
The article that really got my attention though, was The Debate Over Screen Time is Really About Moms, not Kids by Elissa Strauss (2016). To me this is kind of funny timing on reading this article because a week ago, I was talking to my grandma and saying that I wont let my future child have or play any electronics until they are about 5 (call me crazy). I said this because I wouldn’t want them to become so attached like how the majority of us are now. But within this article is says there isn’t enough scientific evidence of a child over 2 years old that watches TV or playing on a tablet isn’t all that bad. Strauss mentions a recent essay from JSTOR written by Alexandra Samuel who says that the taboo against screen time is sexist and maybe even classist. This made my jaw drop and my eyes widen, I have never heard anything like that before. Another thing that Samuel mentioned in her essay is that she “takes aim at screen time as boogyman, making the case that its demonization has its roots in a not-always-conscious anti-feminist bias.” To be honest, I don’t completely understand what this statement means, but I found it quite interesting if that even makes sense.
Overall, these readings have made it more clear to me what media literacy means and how youth is actually affected by it. After reading all of these readings, I am looking forward to what the remaining of this course has to offer.
